


crescendo and rhapsody

by helloearthlings



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 10:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12910170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloearthlings/pseuds/helloearthlings
Summary: “Do that again,” Arthur sounded as if he were a million miles away, a half-smile light on his lips, his eyelids fluttering. “Whatever that was, do that again.”Merlin stared, just for a second; Arthur cracked an eye open and the hue was golden, golden light, the same light that entrenched both of their bodies.“Arthur,” Merlin whispered, strangled, forcing himself away from the part of them that said to keep going. “Open your eyes."





	crescendo and rhapsody

**Author's Note:**

> I can always tell when I haven't written fic in awhile.
> 
> Whew, I missed this! Probably a bad idea to write instead of focus on my finals, but you know what, I did it anyway and I'm glad. I love the concept of this, but the execution is shakier than I would've liked. Still, I had a good time and I hope you guys like it! Hopefully since Christmas break is coming up, I'll put out a longer piece soon!

Merlin was kissing Arthur when it happened.

It wasn’t some kind of spectacular kiss; it wasn’t anything that the two of them hadn’t done together before. It was ordinary, or at least as ordinary as anything could be when it came to Arthur. It was on Arthur’s couch, television muted in the background, Merlin pressed up against Arthur’s body with every inch of his own, pressing messy scattered kisses across his jaw.

It wasn’t until Arthur let out a sudden, fluttering breath, airy and light, that Merlin realized anything was amiss. But Arthur made a noise so sweet that Merlin had to stop kissing him to look him in the eye –

And he noticed that Arthur’s body was radiating gold.

A hazy gold dust, in fact, that was all over the two of them. Something that hadn’t been there a moment before. Merlin’s heart thumping in his chest felt like double the size, just for a moment, and affection rushed through his bones in a swooping motion.

“Do that again,” Arthur sounded as if he were a million miles away, a half-smile light on his lips, his eyelids fluttering. “Whatever that was, do that again.”

Merlin stared, just for a second; Arthur cracked an eye open and the hue was golden, golden light, the same light that entrenched both of their bodies.

“Arthur,” Merlin whispered, strangled, forcing himself away from the part of them that said _keep going_. “Open your eyes.”

Arthur blinked up at him, confusedly, his mouth twisting the way it always did when he was annoyed, probably that Merlin wasn’t still pressed up against his chest. However, Arthur’s eyes widened when they met Merlin’s.

Merlin looked down and saw that the golden haze was encircling him, too, his skin very nearly glowing with it.

He saw the self-awareness in Arthur’s eyes as Arthur’s breath shuddered, noticing his own shimmering body in the light of the otherwise dark apartment, the only other light the quick flashes of the television screen behind them and all at once Merlin knew what this was.

“What’s –” Arthur gasped, jolting upwards. The golden hue seemed to dampen slightly, the room nearly returning to reality but not quite. The haze was still there, ever so subtle, engulfing the two of them.

“Arthur,” Merlin whispered, and it may have been his imagination but when he took Arthur’s hand, the golden light seemed to resurface, “there’s something I need to tell you.”

* * *

 

Merlin honestly hadn’t meant to get involved with Arthur. No matter how much Gaius rolled his eyes at him when Merlin defended himself, it was the truth. Once he was involved, that was all conscious. That was a choice. But Merlin hadn’t accepted the research position on Planet Earth just so he could fall in love with one of its inhabitants.

Gaius claimed otherwise – said that Merlin was always consciously making an effort to make both of their lives more difficult. Merlin argued that he did it naturally, that he had no control over it.

Meeting Arthur, he had no control over.

He’d been in a coffee shop, laptop open. Laptops were a bit primitive compared to the technology Merlin was used to working with, but he needed to blend in. It was the third week of the two-year mission that he and Gaius were a part of.

Monitoring Earth’s inhabitants and reporting back to the Union. Earth’s technology had been advancing rapidly in the past half a century, and was slowly gaining more traction in the world of space travel. Officials thought that it would be the next planet to join the Union, in the next three decades or so.

So they hired researchers; duos from across the galaxy, deposited into different Earth cities to gather and collect data, so that the Union would know the best way to deal with and potentially placate Earth when it joined their ranks.

Gaius was doing the scientific research in their duo; Merlin was doing cultural research, most of which involved sitting in Starbucks half a block from the British Museum and observing human interaction, recorded on his annoyingly slow laptop. What he wouldn’t give to have his Holodeck instead.

It was his eighteenth day on Earth when Arthur Pendragon walked up to him in that crowded Starbucks, pleated white shirt and narrow black tie, blond hair perfectly in place, straight-backed and proud, said “I know you. You’ve come to the British Museum every day for the past two weeks. You sit at the exhibits for hours and a time and take _meticulous_ notes. I keep wandering by just to see if you’re still there. You always are.”

Merlin smiled at him, a little bemused and unsure of how to respond. Even in his preliminary research, he knew that humans were a very individualistic species that focused more on their own lives than the lives of their community. Merlin had flashbacks to every time his father called him a _selfish slak_ and wondered if it was just in his genes.

“Sorry, that may have come off a little odd,” Arthur had laughed, eyes crinkling the way Merlin would grow to love. “I’m Arthur. I’m a project curator at the museum.”

He stuck out his hand; a human greeting that Merlin had grown very familiar with. He liked the handshaking; it was far more comfortable than Klaya’s formal greeting of running your palm from the other’s elbow to their own palm.

Merlin took it. “My name’s Merlin. I’m a PhD student studying British history and culture.”

It was his cover story; he had the proper credentials for it, in case anyone asked, and it was very possible that a museum curator might ask.

Arthur, however, just grinned brilliantly as if Merlin just told him the best news he’d heard all day. “Fantastic. Glad someone’s making use of the place. If I have to help coordinate one more primary school field trip….Not that I’m against teaching kids, but if I see one more toddler with an iPhone, I am going to snap.”

Merlin laughed, recognizing the clear and obvious joke. Mentally, he reminded himself to make a note about the culture surrounding technology on a generational basis.

“Can I buy you a coffee?” Arthur asked after a few more laughing exchanges, and Merlin agreed.

It had been a bit of a whirlwind after that, but one Merlin would never forget. He’d told Arthur he was foreign, from Denmark, and didn’t know many people in the city, so Arthur had taken him out on a pub crawl with his friends. He said that he had a good time, and Arthur kept inviting him to football games and movie marathons and everything that that humans _did._

“Research,” Merlin told Gaius when Gaius raised his blasted eyebrow in Merlin’s direction. “I’m doing research! I can learn more about humanity in one night out with my friends than you can learn in two weeks sitting in that blasted laboratory of yours.”

That had led Gaius into a near two-hour lecture about anatomy and physiology, during which Merlin pretended to fall asleep four times.

It was after the first time Arthur had invited Merlin to stay the night – with a frustrated “Dammit, Merlin, I’ve been spending weeks – months! – trying to figure out if we’re dating or not. Are we?” to which Merlin unequivocally said yes – that he had no retort for Gaius and his eyebrow.

“I really care about him,” Merlin said, deflating when the eyebrow greeted him when he walked in the front door of the flat. “And I’ve spent all of my life, Gaius – every waking moment – feeling like I was an outsider. That I’d never fit in. That there was a part of me that no one else would ever understand, because I wasn’t like them. Not entirely. But I feel that now, Gaius. Especially with Arthur. Please don’t turn me into the Union.”

Gaius’s expression softened, but he was firm when he said “Merlin. We’ve been on Earth for nearly eight months now. We only have sixteen left. This is only going to end in you being hurt, and I don’t want to see that happen. He can never know who you truly are. How will he feel when you just disappear one day? You have to think of someone other than yourself.”

“I know,” Merlin said softly, all the while trying to find a way out of the conundrum Arthur presented.

* * *

 

He hadn’t found one yet, but it was month nineteen now, and the golden haze was still fluttering around the two of them, cocooning them in its otherworldly glow. Arthur’s expression was slack as Merlin spoke, heart in his chest – he’d been trying to find a way to tell Arthur, for so long, and now…

“I wanted to tell you,” Merlin whispered, voice hoarse and scratching. “But it’s not the kind of thing that one would easily believe.”

“You’re right,” Arthur’s eyebrows narrowed, but his voice wasn’t one of anger, just suspicion. “I don’t believe it. I – an alien, Merlin? Really? Do you think I’m stupid or something? You can’t be –”

Arthur’s voice fell flat, and a miserable expression crossed his face, one that looked nearly sickly. Merlin resisted the urge to touch him, brush his hair back, kiss it away. He’d learned all about human illness when Arthur had the flu, and this looked like it.

“It would explain why you’re so…odd,” Arthur shuddered. “And…and different from anyone I’ve ever met. But – no, I can’t possibly believe – prove it. If you’re an alien, prove it.”

Merlin bit his lip. Gaius always yelled at him when he used his _caru,_ even in private; he shouted himself hoarse every time about living like humans and the fear of discovery and being burned as witches, no matter how many times that Merlin reassured Gaius that witch-burnings were an ancient practice.

Still, this was Arthur. The same Arthur who took Merlin to the zoo and made him try a blue raspberry snow cone and took a picture of Merlin’s tongue when it turned blue. The same Arthur who gave him a hardbound leather copy of his favorite book, _Le Morte d’Arthur_ in its original text. The same Arthur who blushed and stammered through introducing Merlin to his sister. The same Arthur who Merlin desperately wanted to stay with no matter what the cost.

Merlin gathered his hand into a fist, raising it between his body’s and Arthur’s. Hesitantly, he relaxed, spreading his fingers, knuckles cracking.

A little blue butterfly fluttered between their heads, just for a moment, the golden light reflecting off of her wings. She flitted off, away from the light.

Arthur let out a breath so short Merlin almost missed it.

“The planet I’m from, Klaya,” Merlin began softly, not knowing quite how to start. “Our genetic makeup is very similar to humans, but with the tangible difference that we have the ability to manipulate the matter around us. Nearly everyone can move objects without touching them, but it’s a little rarer to create something out of nothing, and rarer still to create a life form. Everyone thought my abilities would be weaker, since I’m only half-Klayan, but I actually have a larger range of abilities.”

“Half,” Arthur repeated, sounding a little lost, and Merlin couldn’t help but reach out to squeeze his hand reassuringly. Arthur gave him a fleeting, desperate smile, and Merlin’s heart fluttered with hope. “What’s the other half, then?”

“Human,” Merlin said gently and Arthur seemed to let out a breath of relief, and he laughed shakily.

“Half-human,” Arthur shook his head ruefully. “I guess that’s easier to stomach. You look pretty human to me.”

“It’s why I took this job,” Merlin said, and Arthur tilted his head, noticeably confused. “I’m a cultural anthropologist. I’m usually employed on a starship, but the Union wanted agents on Earth now that Earth might be reaching the point of other-life discovery. We don’t ever interfere with underdeveloped planetary affairs, but the Union likes to know other people’s business. I wanted to come because I’ve spent all my life dreaming of what Earth might be like. If I might find a place here. Feel a little less like I was an outsider.”

“How are you half-human? If Earth isn’t a part of this Union thing?” Arthur asked, sounding genuinely curious, even if there was still an untrusting reservation in his voice.

“My mother,” Merlin said affectionately. “She’s human. The only human I ever knew until I came here. About forty years ago, the Union sent its first set of agents here. To London. My mother accidentally boarded their ship. She was only seven. By the time they realized she was on board, they didn’t feel like they could bring her home. She knew too much. So they took her to Klaya, since we’re physically the most similar to humanity. She met my father. I was born.”

Arthur was quiet for a moment, hands twisting together into anxious knots. Arthur did that when he was nervous. Merlin set his hands on top of Arthur’s own, and pulled them apart. Arthur relaxed slowly, but there was still tension.

“Hey,” Merlin whispered, nudging Arthur’s knee with his own. “Arthur, I love you. If you don’t believe anything else, at least believe that. You’re not some research project or science experiment. I want to be with you no – no matter what, as long as you still want to be with me.”

“I mean –” Arthur smiled, but there was a tremor to his features that Merlin couldn’t quite read, and a lump formed in his throat. “Does this – does thing change anything? I mean – you said this was a job. Are you on, like, a work visa? Or student visa, rather? That’s what I thought you were on before this. A student visa. I was already thinking….after your degree, we could get married. So that you could stay here instead of going back to Denmark. But – I mean, does your planet even have marriage?”

It was the kind of question that Merlin dreaded. He couldn’t quite bring himself to answer yet, so he rested his head against Arthur’s shoulder with a heavy sigh, and made himself talk.

“I’m not supposed to be here beyond two years,” Merlin whispered. “In five months, I’m meant to leave Earth and turn my research in to the Union and never think about Earth again.”

Arthur stilled, muscles noticeably tensing, and Merlin locked their fingers together in a response.

“I’m not going to do that,” Merlin said, his voice steely, meant to reassure Arthur in its firmness, its unwavering certainty, even though Merlin was anything but certain he could pull it off. “It’s illegal to stay. But I’ve never been great at following the rules. If they try to drag me away, they risk exposing extraterrestrial life to Earth. Because I’ll make a big mess of it. If nothing else, I’ll make the case that I’m half human, so I have the right to stay. No idea if it’ll work. But I’ll try. I want to stay, Arthur.”

Arthur’s breath danced across Merlin’s cheek as he pulled Merlin’s chin up and pressed a hesitant, soft kiss to Merlin’s lips. “I love you,” Arthur said, a little breathless and very exasperated. “I can’t believe this is real. But I love you. And I don’t want you to leave.”

“Good, because I won’t,” Merlin kissed him back, then remembered there was a second part to Arthur’s question and reluctantly pulled away. “And….about the other thing you said. Marriage. There isn’t marriage on my planet. There’s an operation like it, but it’s based on something else. A bonding of souls. It’s this uncontrollable process where, when you’ve really connected with someone, really fallen deeply in love with them, and they reciprocate in every possible way…the universe just brings you together. Melds your souls into one.”

Arthur smiled; it probably appealed to the romantic in him, the one Merlin thought was desperately endearing.

“We almost did that,” Merlin bit his lip. “That’s…the gold haze. I’d only read about it before now. Klayans wondered if I’d even be able to achieve a soul bond, since I was only half-Klayan. Apparently I just needed the right person.”

“You mean –” Arthur’s smile was very nearly fragile now, tremoring under the weight of all of this, and yet still there, still constant. “We –”

“I pulled away before it could actually happen,” Merlin explained, his voice thick, heart hammering. “Soul bonds – it’s like marriage in how it operates in day to day life, but it’s also permanent. Forever. You can feel the other person all the time, no matter what. Their emotions, their moods, the beating of their heart – it’s always there.”

“I guess I –” Arthur’s voice caught, but his hand squeezed Merlin’s knee. “I guess I know you really love me, then.”

“Course I do,” Merlin couldn’t stop his voice from shaking. “I – we’ll have to be careful from now on. The soul bond is meant to be uncontrollable by either party, but I – I stopped it this time, so I might be able to again.”

“What’s wrong with not stopping it?” Arthur said, eyes bright as they met Merlin’s, uncertainty dancing in them. Merlin couldn’t quite believe that this was his life and this was happening to him, not someone else, someone more deserving of that question. “Why can’t we just…I mean, it’s not like stumbling into something. It’s like…like true love.”

“It’s forever,” Merlin reminded him, and Arthur’s face started to fall before Merlin quickly added, “I want to be with you, Arthur. I want to aim for forever. But – I don’t want to force you into anything. I don’t want you to regret it.”

“Do people…” Arthur began to ask. “Do they regret it? On your planet?”

Merlin pondered the question. His parents remained deeply in love, despite their differences, cultural barriers, worlds separating them, but ultimately bringing them together against all the odds.

“No,” Merlin whispered. “I suppose – when you can feel another’s life intrinsically entangled with your own, someone you love and cherish, you can’t really regret it. It’s something that’s a part of you. As natural as breathing.”

Arthur leaned into him without another word, pressing their sides together, hand moving to cup Merlin’s cheek as he kissed him, long and full and utterly perfect.

“Being with you has always been like breathing,” Arthur said, ironically a little breathlessly as he pulled away. “Please, Merlin. I want this. I don’t want – I don’t want us to be separated by planets. I don’t want that to ever be an option. I always want you to be with me.”

Merlin, suddenly overcome with emotion, kissed Arthur back, just long enough for the golden haze around them to begin to vibrate, before stopping himself.

“I don’t want to rush,” Merlin said, and Arthur’s eyes flickered gold in the darkness, just for a moment. “I don’t want you to regret this. Please – let’s take this slowly. When we do this, I want it to be right.”

“Okay,” Arthur said, his eyes softening, but he still pressed another kiss into the crook of Merlin’s neck. “As long as it’s a _when_ and not an _if_. It can’t be an _if_ with us, alright?”

“I can’t imagine what I did to deserve you,” Merlin voiced what he’d been thinking all night as he laid his head against Arthur’s shoulder. “It must be destiny, me finding you.”

“ _I_ found _you,_ ” Arthur said a little smugly, with just a hint of the normalcy of their lives. “You may have been the one to travel galaxies, but I talked to you first,”

“Alright,” Merlin admitted, a warm feeling in his chest. “You found me.”

* * *

 

Gaius and his eyebrow knew exactly what Merlin had been up to. How, Merlin had no idea. Maybe something about someone changed after a near-bond experience.

Whatever it was, Gaius’s disapproving glare met him when Merlin arrived home the next day.

“You told him,” Gaius harrumphed at him from the couch as he paged through a Cosmopolitan magazine. Gaius had grown very attached to Cosmopolitan in their months on Earth; Merlin didn’t know how he was going to leave it behind.

“Stop being so perceptive,” Merlin glared at him as he hung up his coat on the rack and went to the kitchen, banging around loudly as he searched for a cup to make tea.

“This puts him in danger, Merlin,” Gaius called over his shoulder, knowing Merlin was trying to ignore him. “The Union doesn’t take kindly to –”

“The Union,” Merlin interrupted, slamming a cupboard door shut unnecessarily loudly, “is a non-issue. After our stint here is up, I’m resigning from all Union-related activities, as I plan on staying here.”

“Merlin –!” Gaius rose to his feet, and Merlin had to bang another few doors shut to make him feel better about Gaius’s thunderous expression.

“I’m half-human, they can’t stop me,” Merlin said, growing increasingly more irritated as he put the kettle on. “And you can’t either, so don’t even try.”

Gaius clearly had a retort for him, and probably one about personal responsibility, so Merlin quickly added “Gaius, we nearly bonded souls last night. We didn’t. I stopped it in time. But that’s why I had to tell him. And he still wants to be with me – wants to _bind his soul to mine._ I can’t possibly leave him, and the Union obviously won’t let me take a human with me to any other Unionized planet. So I’m staying.”

Gaius very nearly deflated as he looked at Merlin, a steeliness in his eye. “You’ve always been stubborn,” Gaius relented with a sigh. “I suppose this is the natural result. I’ll try to ease the Union’s difficulties with us, but I make no promises.”

Merlin let himself relax a little. “Thanks, Gaius, I –”

He didn’t get to finish his statement, the noise of a key turning in their door distracting him from whatever he was about to say. A few thoughts raced through his mind – could the Union somehow already know about this? Were they watching him? Was Arthur safe? – but when the door opened to reveal Arthur himself, Merlin breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“Sorry, I just thought of something,” Arthur said, smiling awkwardly at Gaius as he shut the door behind him. Gaius glared at the key in Arthur’s hand; Merlin had given it to him ages ago, and Gaius had never approved. Gaius approved of very little. “…Hi, Gaius, how are you?”

Gaius harrumphed in Arthur’s direction. “Arthur. How...pleasant to see you. I hear you know our little secret now, thanks to Merlin’s inability to keep his mouth shut.”

His glare at Merlin was heated, but he made no move to leave the room.

Arthur gave Gaius a mildly terrified look before turning to Merlin with a more earnest expression. “This bond thing – can we actually _be_ physically separated if it happens? For instance, could you even travel light years away from Earth without me if we were – you know –”

“No,” Gaius interrupted before Merlin could respond. “You couldn’t. Those who are bonded at the soul are drawn to one another, will always feel a pull back to one another. If you were bonded, there’s no possible way for you to remain on different planets. It would hurt you too much.”

“So like an immigration marriage,” Arthur smiled genuinely but nervously across the room at Merlin. “I know it’s not an ideal way to think about bonding your soul to someone else’s, but I already love you. More than anything. This would just be an added convenience.”

“Gaius…” Merlin said slowly, turning to his mentor. “Is this something that the Union would take seriously? Could I convince them to let us stay together based on this alone?”

Gaius hesitated, but both Merlin and Arthur’s stares were heavy on him. Heavy – but hopeful. Beyond hopeful. Merlin had never hoped for anything so much in his life.

“I think so,” Gaius said, and Merlin let out a shaky breath. “It’s a rare case, since Klayans are the only species that soul bonds. But since it would cause you both considerable physical pain to be separated, it would go against the _do no harm_ phraseology in our constitution. I would make a case for it.”

Merlin met Arthur’s eye from across the room, and there was a look of genuine hopefulness that couldn’t be faked, couldn’t be pretended.

“We can’t – not just for that, there has to be more than that,” Merlin stopped himself from buying into the magic of the moment, forced pragmatism upon himself. “We deserve a real – real kind of marriage, not an immigration marriage.”

“But it’s not,” Arthur said earnestly, taking a hesitant step closer to Merlin. “It’s a bond. Something the universe was about to give us anyway without me even knowing about any of this. I didn’t have to know these things to love you, for the universe to know we were meant to be together. Please, Merlin – please don’t ever let me be without you, okay? I _can’t_ be without you. You’re – you’re all I have and I can’t bear to lose you, and if you let this happen, then I _can’t_ lose you.”

Merlin squeezed his eyes shut, wishing desperately that he really was a British history student from Denmark who could marry Arthur after his student visa expired so that he wouldn’t have to think about this. Deal with all of this. Feel the pressure of all of this.

Arthur was the first part of his life that he felt like he needed. Wanted. Desired beyond all else. Enjoyed. Loved.

He’d been so lonely, all those years on Klaya with only his mother to understand the isolation he faced, the inability to understand why he was so different from the rest, so alone. Even on a starship, long into his adult life, he’d faced it. No one he knew fit with him.

He thought that humanity might be the fit. And it was, in a way. But now it felt like it hadn’t been Earth he’d been waiting for, but Arthur. Just Arthur. He was what fit.

“Merlin,” Gaius said softly, his usual annoyance-laden voice gentler than Merlin had heard it in a long time. “He’s being terribly romantic. And you know I disapprove of these distractions, but personally, I think it would be very rude to refuse him. He seems very passionate in this endeavor.”

“Thank you, Gaius,” Arthur grinned brilliantly in Gaius’s direction and Merlin couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer wonder in his voice at getting Gaius on his side.

“C’mere,” Merlin said, bridging the space between himself and Arthur to hug him tightly. Arthur relaxed into his grip, hands running up Merlin’s back. “Not right now, not in front of Gaius.”

Arthur laughed into his shoulder. “It doesn’t even have to be today,” Arthur said affectionately. “Just so long as it’s before you have to leave.”

“I can do that,” Merlin whispered, squeezing tightly.

* * *

 

“Didn’t even do it with candles and rose petals,” Arthur murmured into Merlin’s hair, the golden glow shrouding the two of them even hours after Merlin began to feel Arthur’s heartbeat next to his own, a presence that would be constant for the rest of his life.

It was incredible, that he was going to be able to feel this for the rest of his life.

“Very bad beginning to a lifetime together,” Arthur continued on his little tangent, and Merlin knew it was to make him laugh. Arthur always knew how to make him laugh. He could feel the steady thrum of amusement and affection that wasn’t his, and yet was his, because Arthur was his. “With a lack of ambiance.”

“Shut up,” Merlin whispered, kissing Arthur’s hand, a kiss for each knuckle.

“Hey,” Arthur said, voice lazy and sated and happier than Merlin could ever remember hearing it. “Since no stupid alien government can tear us apart anymore, does that mean I can go see other planets? ‘Cause it seems pretty pointless to have a cool alien boyfriend and not get to see cool alien shit.”

“Wherever you want to go,” Merlin said, nothing ever truer, curling around Arthur, breathless with the idea of having this forever.

“I want to go where you’re from,” Arthur said, a hand reaching out to stroke Merlin’s arm. “All the places you like best. Everything you love. I wanna see everything.”

“I’ll take you to some cool alien museums,” Merlin said drowsily, and Arthur laughed, long and hard. “I know how much you love museums.”

“Only the best museums,” Arthur said contentedly, head fitting perfectly between Merlin’s neck and shoulder. “Only your favorites.”

“Anything you want to see, that’s my favorite,” Merlin kissed Arthur’s hair. Arthur sighed contentedly and Merlin could feel it in his chest when Arthur started to drift, when he woke up, when he started to drift again.

“So are you still my cool alien boyfriend, or are you my cool alien husband now?” Arthur asked in one of his more awake moments, his voice clearly indicating that both options were equally cool.

“ _Vlaka_ ,” Merlin said, and Arthur shot him a quizzical look, cracking an eyelid open to do so. “That’s the word for it on Klaya. In English, it translates to _beloved_.”

“Cool alien beloved,” Arthur snickered, propping up his chin to press a kiss to Merlin’s lips. “Perfect.”

“Yeah,” Merlin replied lazily, stroking Arthur’s hair as he laid back down, a smile on his lips. “It really is.”


End file.
